WRONG MOVE | Dir. Wim Winders | 1975 | 103 min
Presented in German with English subtitles.

Glückstadt in northern Germany, Bonn, a palace along the Rhine, a housing project on the outskirts of Frankfurt, and finally the Zugspitze—these are the stations of the journey that the young Wilhelm Meister (Rüdiger Vogler) hopes will save him from the gloomy irritability and despondency that plague him in his hometown. In unfamiliar places, he thinks that he will be able to do what he has always had an uncontrollable drive to do—to write. He wants to become an author. With the journey, which his mother (Marianne Hoppe) gives him permission to make, he hopes to broaden his horizons and, above all, to find himself.

In Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, which provided the source material for Peter Handke’s script, a journey of this kind was still a “genuine movement.” In the literature of the nineteenth century, particularly in the German bildungsroman, the topos of the journey is always linked to lasting significant changes and experiences. Traveling is synonymous with the successful search for one’s own identity.

But the Wilhelm of Wrong Move must arrive at the painful recognition that today a journey alone no longer leads to the desired goal. His path leads him into an unbroken series of failures, through his own fault and that of all the people he meets on his way: the street singer Laertes (Hans Christian Blech), struggling with his Nazi past, the mute girl Mignon (Nastassja Kinski in her first role), the poet (Peter Kern), and the actress Therese (Hanna Schygulla). – Janus Films

Awards
1975 CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - NOMINATION (Gold Hugo, Best Feature | Wim Wenders)
1975 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - WNNER (Film Award in Gold, Best Direction | Wim Wenders, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller, Best Screenplay | Peter Handke, Best Film Score | Jürgen Knieper, Best Editing | Peter Przygodda,  Best Performance by an Ensemble | Hans Christian Blech, Ivan Desny, Adolf Hansen, Marianne Hoppe, Peter Kern, Nastassja Kinski, Lisa Kreuzer, Hanna Schygulla, Rüdiger Vogler)

Wrong Move is the final work in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.

ALICE IN THE CITIES | Dir. Wim Winders | 1974 | 112 min
Presented in German with English subtitles

The first of the road films that would come to define the career of Wim Wenders, the magnificent Alice in the Cities is an emotionally generous and luminously shot odyssey. A German journalist (Rüdiger Vogler) is driving across the United States to research an article; it’s a disappointing trip, in which he is unable to truly connect with what he sees. Things change, however, when he has no choice but to take a young girl named Alice (Yella Rottländer) with him on his return trip to Germany, after her mother (Lisa Kreuzer)—whom he has just met—leaves the child in his care. Though they initially find themselves at odds, the pair begin to form an unlikely friendship. – the Criterion Collection

Awards
1974 CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - NOMINATION (Gold Hugo, Best Feature | Wim Wenders)
1976 GERMAN FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS - WINNER (German Film Critics Award, Best Film | Wim Wenders)

Alice in the Cities is the fifth work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.

WINGS OF DESIRE | Dir. Wim Winders | 1987 | 128 min
Presented in German with English subtitles.

Wings of Desire marked Wenders’s homecoming and was his first German film after eight years in America. The main characters are guardian angels— benevolent, invisible beings in trench coats—who listen to the thoughts of mortals and attempt to comfort them. One of them, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), wishes to become human after he falls in love with the beautiful trapeze artist Marion (Solveig Dommartin). Peter Falk, playing himself, helps Damiel during his transformation by introducing him to life’s little pleasures. The film is narrated from the perspective of the angels, who see the world in black and white. Only when Damiel becomes human does the world of color reveal itself to him. He leaves behind his old friend Cassiel (Otto Sander), who continues to be accompanied by Homer (Curt Bois), the “storyteller of humanity.” The film has achieved cult status around the world; in 1998, it was remade under the title City of Angels, with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan in the lead roles. – Janus Films

Awards
1987 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - WINNER (Best Director | Wim Wenders), NOMINATION (Palme d'Or | Wim Wenders)
1988 CESAR AWARDS, FRANCE - NOMINATION (Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1988 EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS - Best Supporting Actor | Curt Bois, Best Director | Wim Wenders), NOMINATION (Best Film | Wim Wenders, Anatole Dauman, Special Aspect, Henri Alekan | Best Camera)
1988 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Film Award in Gold, Outstanding Feature Film | Argos, Best Cinematography | Henri Alekan), NOMINATION (Film Award in Gold, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role | Bruno Ganz)
1988 FRENCH SYNDICATE OF FRENCH FILM CRITICS - WINNER (Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders, West Germany)
1988 GRAND PRIX DE L'UCC - WINNER (Grand Prix de l'UCC)
1989 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - NOMINATION (Special Film Award '40th Anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany' | Wim Wenders)
1989 BAFTA AWARDS - NOMINATION (Best Film not in the English Language | Wim Wenders & Anatole Dauman, West Germany/France)
1988 BAVARIAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Best Direction | Wim Wenders)
1988 ITALIAN INTERNATIONAL SYNDICATE OF FILM JOURNALISTS - NOMINATION (Silver Ribbon, Best Foreign Actor | Bruno Ganz)
1988 LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS - WINNER (LAFCA Award, Best Cinematography | Henri Alekan, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1988 NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS - WINNER ( NYFCC Award, Best Cinematographer | Henri Alekan), 3RD PLACE (NYFCC Award, Best Director | Wim Wenders)
1988 SAO PAULO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WINNER (Audience Award, Best Feature | Wim Wenders)
1989 BLUE RIBBON AWARDS - WINNER (Best Foreign Language Film | Wim Wenders)
1989 GUILD OF GERMAN ART HOUSE CINEMAS - WINNER (Guild Film Award - Silver, German Film | Wim Wenders)
1989 INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS - WINNER (Independent Spirit Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders, West Germany)
1989 NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS, USA - WINNER (NSFC Award, Best Cinematography | Henri Alekan), 3RD PLACE (NSFC Award, Best Director | Wim Wenders,
Best Film. Tied with A World Apart (1988) in 3rd place.)
1991 SESC FILM FESTIVAL, BRAZIL - WINNER (Audience Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders, Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)

Wings of Desire is the fourth work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.

PARIS, TEXAS | Dir. Wim Winders | 1984 | 148 min

Paris, Texas is Wenders’s best-known and internationally most successful film. Celebrated by critics, it won a series of important international awards, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes. This unconventional road movie is based on a script by Pulitzer Prize winner Sam Shepard and tells the story of Travis (Harry Dean Stanton), a man who wanders out of Mexico and into the blazing heat of Texas’s Big Bend one day. Travis does not speak a word. He also seems to have largely lost his memory. But he is driven by his wish to find his family again: his young wife, Jane (Nastassja Kinski), whose life he seems to have placed in danger through his pathological jealousy, and his seven-year-old son, Hunter (Hunter Carson). For four years, Travis was thought to be dead. His brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), flies from L.A. to Texas to bring back his lost sibling. Walt and his wife, Ann (Aurore Clément), have become Hunter’s foster parents. It is very difficult for the two of them to now give up this role, especially when they learn that Travis wants to take his son in search of Jane. They know nothing about her, except that she probably lives in Houston . . . In addition to impressive performances by Stanton as Travis and Kinski as Jane, a unique soundtrack by Ry Cooder has made Paris, Texas a cult film.  – Janus Films

Awards
1984 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - WINNER (FIPRESCI Prize | Wim Wenders, Tied with Voyage to Cythera (1984), Palme d'Or | Wim Wenders, Prize of the Ecumenical Jury | Wim Wenders)
1984 GERMAN CAMERA AWARD - WINNER (Feature Film | Robby Müller)
1984 LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AWARDS - 2ND PLACE (LAFCA Award, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller, for Repo Man)
1984 NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW, USA - WINNER (NBR Award, Top Ten Films)
1985 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Film Award in Silver, Outstanding Feature Film), NOMINATION (Film Award in Gold, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Nastassja Kinski)
1985 SANT JORDI AWARDS - WINNER (Sant Jordi, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 CESAR AWARDS, FRANCE - NOMINATION (César, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 GOLDEN GLOBES, USA - NOMINATION (Best Foreign Film)
1985  DAVID DI DONATELLO AWARDS - WINNER (René Clair Award | Wim Wenders), NOMINATION (David, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 FOTOGRAMAS DE PLATA - WINNER (Fotogramas de Plata, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1985 FRENCH SYNDICATE OF CINEMA CRITICS - WINNER (Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders, West Germany)
1985 BAFTA AWARDS - WINNER (Best Direction | Wim Wenders, Best Screenplay - Adapted | Sam Shepard), NOMINATION (Best Film | Chris Sievernich & Anatole Dauman, Best Score | Ry Cooder)
1985 BAVARIAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Bavarian Film Award, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller)
1985 BODIL AWARDS - WINNER (Best European Film, Wim Wenders)
1985 LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARDS - WINNER (ALFS Award, Film of the Year)
1986 GUILD OF GERMAN ART HOUSE CINEMAS - WINNER (Guild Film Award - Silver, German Film | Wim Wenders)
1986 SESC FILM FESTIVAL, BRAZIL - WINNER (Critics Award, Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1986 YOUNG ARTIST AWARDS - NOMINATION (Young Artist Award, Best Starring Performance by a Young Actor - Motion Picture | Hunter Carson)

Paris, Texas is the third work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.

THE AMERICAN FRIEND | Dir. Wim Wenders | 1977 | 126 min  
Presented in German, French, and English with subtitles for non-English portions.

Wim Wenders pays loving homage to rough-and-tumble Hollywood film noir with The American Friend, a loose adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game. Dennis Hopper oozes quirky menace as an amoral American art dealer who entangles a terminally ill German everyman, played by Bruno Ganz, in a seedy criminal underworld as revenge for a personal slight—but when the two become embroiled in an ever-deepening murder plot, they form an unlikely bond. Filmed on location in Hamburg and Paris, with some scenes shot in grimy, late-seventies New York City, Wenders’s international breakout is a stripped-down crime story that mixes West German and American film flavors, and it features cameos by filmmakers Jean Eustache, Samuel Fuller, and Nicholas Ray. - Criterion

Awards
1977 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL - NOMINATION (Palme d'Or | Wim Wenders)
1977 NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW, USA - WINNER (NBR Award, Top Foreign Films)
1977 NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS, USA - 3RD PLACE (NSFC Award, Best Cinematography | Robby Müller)
1978 BAMBI AWARDS - WINNER (Best Actress, National | Lisa Kreuzer)
1978 CESAR AWARDS, FRANCE - NOMINATION (Best Foreign Film | Wim Wenders)
1978 GERMAN FILM AWARDS - WINNER (Film Award in Gold: Best Direction | Wim Wenders, Best Editing | Peter Przygodda For Die linkshändige Frau and Die gläserne Zelle, Film Award in Silver: Outstanding Feature Film)
1979 SANT JORDI AWARDS - WINNER (Sant Jordi, Best Foreign Performer | Bruno Ganz)

The American Friend is the second work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.

THE GOALIE’S ANXIETY AT THE PENALTY KICK | Dir. Wim Wenders | 1972 | 100 min | R
Presented in German with English subtitles.

Wim Wenders's first mature film (1972), based on Peter Handke's novel about a soccer player who kills a young woman for no good reason and wanders off into the German provinces, less to escape the police than to find himself. Wenders's refusal to allow any psychological insight renders the film intriguingly obscure; it's all on the surface, yet the surface remains unruffled. - Chicago Reader

Awards
1972 VENICE FILM FESTIVAL - WINNER (FIPRESCI Prize)

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick is the first work of focus in our MASTERS: WIM WENDERS series.